ISIS Suicide Bomber Kills Two Iraqi Generals in Anbar

Iraq’s attempts to surround the Anbar capital city of Ramadi have been struggling in recent days as they’ve faced attacks from ISIS, and suffered another major blow today, with an ISIS suicide car bomb hitting troops positions in the area of al-Jaraishi, just north of Ramadi, killed two top generals.

ISIS, naturally, also issued a statement claiming credit for the strike, saying that there were actual four car bombers involved in the attack, and that the incident took place at the main Iraqi command headquarters north of Ramadi. Iraq’s statement only confirmed the general vicinity of the strike.

Over the weekend, ISIS carried out ambushes around the outskirts of Ramadi, killing at least 50 Iraqi soldiers. They wounded another general, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Dulaimi, who was promptly fired by the Iraqi military for “failing to carry out his duties.”

With mounting defeats at the hands of ISIS and the Baghdad government charging many Iraqi commanders with dereliction of duty for being defeated, Iraq is already light on experienced military commanders, and these latest deaths may be another significant blow.

It also suggests that previous predictions of victory in Ramadi by the Abadi government are once again premature, with the attempts to surround the city simply creating opportunities to attack Iraqi troops in relatively insecure areas in the Anbar Province.